June 22, 2000 „You could say this is a bet-the-company thing. Our entire strategy revolves around this platform,” Gates said.

Gates introduced the platform to a few hundred press and analysts attending the day-long Forum 2000 event on the Microsoft Redmond, Wash., campus. Top brass from a handful of the top divisions across the company are slated to outline how the .Net platform will change the home, developer and business user experience going forward.

Gates provided a few sneak peeks of the pending user interface and next-generation tablet PC that will be critical to Microsoft’s strategy.

„I get to explain how we will shape a new direction and conquer some new horizons,” Gates told attendees, in his role as chief software architect.

‘You could say this is a bet-the-company thing. Our entire strategy revolves around this platform.’ Bill Gates The .Net platform described by Gates is comprised of a number of Extensible Markup Language-enabled products and services, taking the form of building blocks from Microsoft and third parties. While all .Net devices will be able to access the .Net back-end infrastructure, those running the Microsoft .Net interface and other client software will have richer access to the services, Gates acknowledged.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/gates-ms-future-rides-on-net-strategy/